There’s a group on Facebook that focuses on remembering Tallahassee, Florida. The group’s idea of “the past” tends to focus on the memories of people who are younger than I am, so this means that when somebody asks something like, “Does anyone remember the Tsunami Cafe,” it turns out that the cafe came and went after was long gone from the town where I grew up.

Other than a few short stories in my Widely Scattered Ghosts collection–and brief mention in a long-ago novel–I prefer placing the action of my Florida Folk Magic Series in a fictional town west of Tallahassee. Why? Because I control the town and don’t have to worry about conflicting with real events there (because there aren’t any).

But placing story in Tallahassee has always bothered me because I haven’t been there since 1987 and really know very little about what’s happened there since then. However, my 1954-era novel Fate’s Arrows ends with the main character moving to Tallahassee. So, now I’m stuck. If I write a short story about her, it needs to happen in Tallahassee in the early 1950s.

Heck, I was in grade school then, so it’s not like my memories of the town will help. Fortunately, I may have found a resource that will work, one that focuses on what things were like before I was old enough to known about and/or understand what things were like in Tallahassee. It’s in the mail and will arrive by the end of the week.

I’m excited about seeing it so I can figure out just how to merge my fictional Pollyanna Hoskins character, who may or may not work for the CIA, into the real events of Florida’s capital. I hope I can make it work because–with some trepidation–I’m looking forward to going home again (figuratively speaking).

If the thing works, I’ll get back to you. If it doesn’t work, I’ll delete this post and–like the real CIA–will disavow any knowledge about anything, you know, due to national security.

—Malcolm